Ember POV:
The Onyx Club was a pulsating headache of neon lights and bass that rattled your teeth. It was a place where high-ranking wolves came to indulge in their darker vices—gambling, fighting, and flesh.
I shouldn't be here. But an hour ago, my phone had buzzed.
Chace: I'm hurt. Silver burn. Come to Onyx. Now. Bring your kit.
Panic had overridden my anger. Silver burns were agonizing; they ate through flesh like acid and didn't heal. My instinct as a healer—and my stupid, lingering loyalty—had sent me running.
But when I pushed through the VIP doors, there was no blood. No smell of burnt flesh.
Chace was sitting on a velvet sofa, a drink in one hand, laughing. He was surrounded by his Beta friends and, of course, Karyn.
He wasn't hurt. He was partying.
"You made it!" Chace cheered, his speech slurred. He spotted the medical bag in my hand and laughed harder. "Look, guys! I told you she'd come running. Trained like a good little pet."
I stood frozen, the heavy bass thumping against my chest. "You lied."
"It was a test," Karyn purred from beside him. She was swirling a glass of dark purple liquid. "We're playing King's Game. And I'm the King."
She pointed a manicured nail at me. "I won the last round. My dare is for you."
The wolves around them snickered.
"Ember," Karyn commanded. "See that Rogue over there?" She pointed to a scarred, greasy wolf sitting alone in the corner. He was a hired thug, likely paid to be here for security. "Go let him bite your neck. Just a taste. Let's see if you can take a mark."
My stomach dropped. A mark was sacred. To let a stranger, a Rogue, bite my scent gland was a violation worse than rape in our culture.
"No," I whispered.
"Do it!" Karyn snapped.
I looked at Chace. "Chace, please. You can't let her do this."
Chace shrugged, his eyes glassy. "It's just a game, Ember. Don't be a spoil-sport. Besides, you need to learn your place. You're too proud for a servant."
He wasn't going to stop it. He wanted to see me broken.
"I choose the punishment," I said, my voice shaking but clear. In King's Game, you could refuse the dare if you took the punishment.
Karyn's eyes narrowed. She held up her glass. "Fine. Drink this."
It was the Wolfsbane wine. A full glass.
"That will kill her," a Beta friend muttered, looking uneasy. "That's 80 proof with pure extract."
"She has no wolf," Karyn spat. "It won't affect her like it does us. It'll just make her sleep."
That was a lie. Wolfsbane was poison to anyone with wolf blood, shifted or not.
Chace looked worried for a second. "Maybe just half a glass, Karyn?"
"Are you defending her?" Karyn challenged him.
Chace's jaw tightened. He looked at me, then back at Karyn. "No. Drink up, buttercup."
I looked at the purple liquid. It smelled like death and licorice.
If I drank this, it might kill me. But if I didn't, they would force me to the Rogue.
I grabbed the glass.
Keith, I thought, sending a desperate prayer through the dormant link. If I die, burn this place to the ground.
I tipped the glass back and swallowed.
Liquid fire slashed down my throat. It felt like swallowing razor blades. My stomach convulsed instantly.
I dropped the glass. It shattered on the floor.
"See?" Karyn laughed. "She's fine."
The world tilted. My vision swam. Grey spots danced in front of my eyes. I fell to my knees, gasping for air that wouldn't come.
But then, something strange happened.
Instead of stopping my heart, the poison hit the seal my mother had placed on me. The barrier that held back my White Wolf blood was already cracked from the heartbreak. The Wolfsbane acted like acid, dissolving the rest of it.
Thump-thump.
My heart didn't stop. It accelerated.
A heat, hotter than the poison, exploded from my core. It wasn't the heat of fever. It was the heat of a star being born.
I looked up through the haze. I saw Chace and Karyn dancing, ignoring my body on the floor.
Darkness took me, but in the silence of my mind, I heard a sound I had never heard before.
A growl.
And it was coming from inside me.
